wrestling / Columns

The Best Of The Rest 7.31.08: Volume 53 – Adame as GM, The Sandman’s Arrest and More!

July 31, 2008 | Posted by Alex Mattis

Hello everyone and welcome back. Hope all is going well. Since we’ve last meet the worst authority figure in the history of the E has been appointed as Mike Adamle was named the new GM of Raw. This week I’ll discuss the pro’s and con’s of this move. Also a look at Sandman’s arrest and the times he was probably too intoxicated for his own good. Let’s get down to it!

The Pro’s and Con’s of Mike Adamle as Raw GM
While it is still hard to believe that this know nothing, bad TV personality, is now the authority figure on the led brand of sports entertainment in the world, some good could still come out of it. As with every situation in pro wrestling, there are pro’s and con’s to this and in this week’s column I plan to look at both. So now I present:

Pro’s
-The unintentional heel. I don’t know many people that have anything good to say about Adamle, he is just awful at what he does plain and simple. But the fact of the matter is his character has never done a bad thing… ever. But the fact remains that people cannot stand the sight of him. So despite what he may do, good or bad for the brand, as long as he keeps his current easy to hate nice-guy character he could easily become one of the biggest heat magnets on Raw, if not the entire E.

-Todd Grisham is no longer on Raw. Anyone who has read much of my work knows that I can’t stand Grisham and feel that he is less educated about wrestling than anyone on the E’s current roster. So the fact that he is off the main show is excellent. But the main thing about this that could be beneficial is the fact that he is now working with Taz. If anyone of the E’s commentators has a shot of helping Todd and educating him on modern wrestling it’s Taz. So while I hate Todd Grisham, in the long run this could be a huge pro for him, his commentating, and his knowledge of the biz.

-The eventual Stone Cold Vs. Vince, bad ass Vs. authority like clash. Assuming, of course, the E doesn’t take some wild turn with the direction of Adamle and his character this is inevitable. Somewhere down the road Mike is bound to piss off one of the top faces in “the interest of fairness” and a rivalry is bound to ensue. The seeds have already been planted with Batista and John Cena and if the E pulls this one off right it could make for great TV and some better than average ratings.

Con’s
Let’s start with the most obvious one…

-Mike Adamle is the general manager of Raw. That sucks pretty bad at the moment. Until things turn around, if they do, Adamle as the GM is going to be an odd thing to adjust to. The hardest thing to do for the E is going to be making the fans take Adamle seriously as an authority figure on Raw. I just don’t think the fans will look at him and take him seriously. And also what does it say for the E that they have this weak personality as the leader of their main show. New fans, or old fans who haven’t tuned in for awhile, will look at this guy and say “what the fuck?”

-No more great addresses from the GM. One of the pivotal roles of the general manager has always been the oh’ so classic address to the locker room, and how is this guys going to deliver a serious, or even good, promo to the wrestlers. For the time being I don’t even think Adamle should talk in the public light, I think we should only see him in the GM’s office until he becomes comfortable with the role.

-William Regal is not the new GM. At the time of his suspension Regal was the hottest heel on Raw, this guy was drawing ridiculous amounts of heat by just standing in the middle of the ring. Now I understand he needed to be punished for his actions, and if this is his punishment so be it. He was dumb to jeopardize the highest spot he’d arguably ever had so this should help him learn his lesson, but I hope he is able to reach the status of Raw GM before it is all said and done.

The Sandman’s Arrest

Would you believe this man made a legacy off professional wrestling?

It is still as hard to believe today that it was ten years ago, that his man has carved a legacy in the sport of professional wrestling while maintaining no true wrestling skills whatsoever. Add on the fact that this man is a well-known drunk who is more dangerous in the ring sober, you have to wonder how this man got through the cracks and succeeded. But looking to current day Hak recently spent some time in a holding tank for some of his drunken shenanigans. Some were surprised by this I suppose, but this was rather tame to those of us who are familiar with the hardcore icon that is the Sandman. So in light of his recent public drunkenness I would like to take a look at my personal favorite moments of Jim Fullington’s intoxication:

Texas Death Match – February 1995, ECW Philadelphia, PA
Now depending on who you talk to Sandman was fucked up in this match for one of two reasons: either 1 – he had a concussion or 2 – he was smashed, for the purposes of this blurb let’s go with #2. Now if you haven’t seen this match you should track it down just to watch how hard to watch the match is. It was like a train wreck on top of a car wreck on top of two little kids crashing their Huffy’s together. The jist of the match is that you have to pin your opponent then keep them down for a 10 count after the fall. Well due to his “state” Hak forgot the ending of the match and would not stay the fuck down. This match is on Mick Foley’s Greatest Hits And Misses and you should watch it to see how truly pissed off Foley gets. He becomes furious and towards the end of the match attempts to legit keep Sandman down for 10, and eventually it worked.

The Sandman Show The Crowd His “Little Cane” – June 30, 2000, ECW Pensacola, FL
You know it’s a pretty shocking/embarrassing moment went it is referred to as one of the wildest and lude acts in the history of the original ECW. Well it would seem that that honor belongs to the Sandman for this little stunt he pulled back in 2000. Florida had always been good to ECW, but unfortunately this act killed the town for ECW for the rest of their existence. Long story short Hak showed up more hammered than usual and even grabbed the bell hammer on the way into the ring and rang the bell several times. Once in the ring he began to strip, all the other wrestlers in the match attempted to stop him but Sandman was intent on getting naked in Pensacola. He eventually got down to just his t-shirt and began hopping around the ring. Everyone involved in the match couldn’t help but crack up. At one point Dreamer was chasing Sandman around trying to put his underwear back on him. To top it all off Raven and Dreamer aided Hak in a game of jump rope. I saw this once online but was never able to relocate it. I know you can find a fan cam copy of this show, and if it is for a good price I recommend it. This incident is quite the experience.

Hak Paid A Visit By The Sandman – April 12, 2008, 2CW Syracuse, NY
Since his departure from the E The Sandman, just like many released wrestlers, has toured the independents and has probably made a good amount of $$$, well one show in particular showed that the Sandman may be sleeping on the job as opposed to doing it. Boy oh’ boy was the Sandman sauced here. His entrance took longer than normal allowing him to suck down some more brew. When he finally made it to the ring he attempted to cut a promo. It made no sense and he even forgot the name of his opponent. Words cannot not describe what happens from here, so take a look for yourself.